May 19th Jesus is Glorious!

Opening my Bible this morning I was deeply deeply needing the Holy Spirit to use the Word to encourage and strengthen me. I open to John 11 and I read, "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of Man may be glorified."  I began to cry. "Yes, Lord Jesus. Be glorified here. Show us that you are the Resurrection and the Life."

Rarely have I seen the hand of God carry us through a day more than He has this week. Again and again, He is making a way for us and showing us His glory.

Jay woke up today still feeling bad, but he went out with Beezi to try to get everything we need from the government. He begged and pleaded with people to ask them to help us get the documents that we needed faster. He showed then a picture of our sweet daughter with a feeding tube in her nose, her head slumped over because it is too heavy to hold up, an iv in her arm, a peeling and bald head and her looking very malnourished. God moved their wills like a stream of water and they helped us. Praise Him!

I went with our 2 little ones to get passport photos and go get their medical approval done. Here is our snag. Our little ones have to have a tb test that takes three days for the us embassy. I praise God for the doctors who examined her today. It has been unclear what her condition really is. The 2 doctors here do not agree. We know now that her main problem is severe malnutrition. This has made her vulnerable to infection and sickness. The doctors think she has pneumonia and we are notsure about tb. She has been tested 3 times for it already and it has come back negative so I am very thankful for that. The doctors were kind and clear. The head doctor assured us that when she has good care she will get over her malnutrition and be fine. She is so weak and frail. This word was so encouraging.

I got to spend a good amount of time with our kids today. I loved and treasured every minute. Big E fell asleep in my lap 2 times and I just held him tight. He is so fun. He smiles easily with a huge beautiful smile. At first he was a little reluctant about me today. I think he is guarding himself from more rejection. He was really letting us love him by the end of the day. We had to leave him at 4 pm to run more document errands. He put on his little back pack to come with us. We assured him we would see him tomorrow.

Little E always seems like she is on the verge of sleep but we got to snuggle while she slept. She will make great eye contact with me now. She puts out her arms just a little to be picked up. She loves to be held. We went and visited her late tonight to arrange a nurse for her test tomorrow. We gave her some juice we bought and she so wanted to drink it. She threw it all up. We felt so bad for her but right after she half smiled 3 times. We got the little photo talking book that we made for her and she smiled at the pictures of Ethan, Kennedy, Braden and Jude. I was so excited to see her half smile, her lips tilted up. She smiled for Big E on Monday, but I didn't see it. She does not lift of use her hand with an iv and she barely uses her other hand. I think it just requires too much energy. But she used her iv hand to show us a place on her arm where the skin is raw from her last iv. She tried a little bit to make a noise. (Today she made 4 sounds that sounded like she was barely able to get out a sound of a word. Praise Him!) She was very concerned about this spot and we asked her if it hurt. She just kept pointing to it. We told her it was okay and kissed it and rubbed her arm.

Please pray that we would all see the glory of God  through this and worship and believe in Him more. It so encourages me to see Him care so personally and intimately about every moment of my day. The fact that He cares for us this way is an amazing display of the riches of His love. Rarely do we get to see His purposes for the ways He has led us. It has been so clear this week. I will tell you more about this when we get home.

Please pray that we will be cleared by medical and will be able to leave on Monday.

Please pray that Little and Big E will believe that we love them and God loves them.

Please pray Little E will continue to heal and we will know how to help her.

Please pray that the hurt and the tears that I have for this orphans would not cease. I feel like every moment I am on the verge of sobbing. If you could see our little girl and the boney babies you would too.

Thank you so much for your encouraging notes and prayers. It means so much to us. The power goes off here and the Internet is spotty, but when we get to read your notes it feels like God Himself is whispering to us, " I am for you. I am with you."

We love you Ethan, Kennedy, Braden and Jude. We long for you. We miss you so so so much. Jesus is worthy of the sacrifice of having us gone. We can not wait to hear all your stories.

Thank you our wonderful Mimi and Papa.

Thank you Shannon for posting this for me. Blogger does not work here.

I will post a forward facing picture when we get home. 

Jesus is the All-Satisfying Treasure!
Ashley Brown